April 6, 2014
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The Purdue men's golf team finished the third and final round on a high note and rallied on the back nine for a seventh-place finish at the Augusta Invitational that concluded today at Forest Hills Golf Club.
The 42nd-ranked Boilermakers shot a 4-over par 292 on Sunday to finish in seventh place with a 54-hole total of 3-over par 867 (292-283-292).
The tournament featured 12 of the nation's top 46 teams and No. 7 UCF won the team title at 18-under par 846. No. 19-ranked Texas was second at 17-under par 847, while No. 13-ranked Virginia Tech was third at 14-under par 850. No. 9 Illinois (852), No. 27 Baylor (861) and No. 8-ranked Houston (866) finished ahead of Purdue.
The Boilermakers defeated nationally-ranked squads South Carolina (#23), New Mexico (#22), Tennessee (#43), TCU (#46), Clemson (#28) and the No. 3-ranked NCAA Division II team, USC-Aiken.
Senior Adam Schenk continued his strong play with a 1-under par 71 in the final round to finish in a tie for 12th at 2-under par 214 (72-71-71). Schenk has scored at even or under par in 13 straight rounds, but needed some late-round heroics to get there today. Schenk was 3-over par through 14 holes, but finished birdie-par-eagle-birdie to finish his round 1-under par.
Schenk has scored at even or under par in 17-of-26 rounds this year.
Freshman Austin Eoff had a strong tournament as well, finishing in a tie for 17th at 1-under par 215 (73-66-75). Eoff played the front nine in 3-over par today, but got back to even par with birdies on holes 11, 14 and 15. Eoff, however, posted an eight on the par-3 16th hole to deny him a shot at a top-10 finish. He did respond with a birdie-par finish to record his fifth top-20 showing of his rookie campaign.
Enzo Perez continued his strong play as well with his third straight top-25 performance with a 20th-place finish at 1-over par 217 (71-73-73). Perez was 2-over par on the front nine before three birdies in a four-hole span to start the back nine moved him to 1-under par for his round through 14 holes. A double-bogey on 15 set him back to 1-over par before settling in for a birdie-bogey finish to cap off his final-round 73.
Stuart Macdonald overcome a tough opening round yesterday to finish in a tie for 45th at 6-over par 222 (76-73-73). Macdonald had a consistent final round with 15 pars, one birdie and two bogeys.
Freshman Philippe Schweizer finished in a tie for 69th at 12-over par 228 (80-73-75).
Purdue will wrap up the regular season in two weeks when it hosts the Boilermaker Invitational at the Kampen Golf Course at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex on April 19-20.The field will include Drake, Illinois (#9), Indiana, Iowa (#44), Kent State (#30), Louisville, Michigan State, Miami Ohio, Northern Illinois, Northwestern (#45), Ohio State, Purdue (#42), Toledo, UCLA (#15) and Wichita State.
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